Flesh and Bone
by tiffanybane
Summary: Zero is in debt to Kaname. "I do not believe you are in the right position to be telling me what to do, Kiryuu. Are you not?"
1. Chapter 1

_A deed without a name._

―Macbeth

* * *

We watched the ex-human writhe on the floor with nails extended into claws that caught on the carpet, tore it viciously from its netting. His eyes were glittering vermillion, staring unfocused and bleary through fluttering eyelids at the ceiling. His pale face, usually impassive and smooth, contorted in agony as a thin sheen of sweat dripped down his brow. A shirt lay torn on either side of him, framing his torso, seeming to accentuate the unfathomably rapid rise and fall of his chest cavity. The breath quickly passing though his lips was thin, as was his lifespan.

A uniform circle of minuscule puncture wounds oozed droplets of blood down the center of his stomach. It was an injection of some sort that caused Kiryuu's back to life off of the ground in a jagged arch. Crimson lines ran in rivulets down his insipid, shivering skin, stopping only when they could go no further at the waistline of his jeans. Blood stained the blue denim fabric, bleeding through the particles and spreading as a marker would to wet paper. The smell was tainted, famished, like something that had been cut open and left out to rot.

Yuuki's nails dug crescent moons into the inside of my wrist. A shattered whimper tumbled from her quivering lips as the silver haired hunter screamed a cracked and strangled noise. The underside of his nails were beginning to tint a gruesome shade of black. The tight skin around wounds on his stomach turned blotchy with bruises. His body seemed to be depleting into a carcass, fading heartbeat resembling the echo of thunder. He was unwillingly shutting down.

"He's dying," Takuma observed from my right. He was the first to speak of Kiryuu's dire situation.

Everyone watched with calculating eyes, unblinking while the strange oddity that was a vampire's grotesque death unfolded before us. Underneath the intrigued exterior blanketing the expressions of my nobles, they were each stupefied.

There had been no utter lack of interest from the moment Aido had dragged the injured Level D to me, for even now they were studying intently. None of us had seen such technique before: some type of shot, and to the stomach of all places.

Was this some newly configured hunter weapon? Was the Association testing out its efficiency on its own prodigy? I thought to myself that the boy would be thankful. He had never wanted anyone to fret over him, not that a pack of vampires of high status would.

"Perhaps we should end him quickly. A death so brutal is quite shameful really. Look at the tears in his eyes."

Yuuki released an offended gasp. Aido's suggestion had awakened a dark rage hidden deep inside of her fragile frame. I could feel her fury before she voiced it, startling ever present vampire.

"I'd like to see your reaction as your body eats you alive from the inside out." Her voice was cold and hard, a strange combination for such a little girl. Aido's features gave way to an apology, for not only was Yuuki my territory but also his superior, no longer an oblivious human.

Too enthralled by the dying ex-human, I flippantly disregarded their disagreement. Time was a crucial aspect at that point and I needed to make a decision quick. A decision based on the reaction Yuuki had given at seeing her Zero disappear from this world, and a decision based on how greatly the affect on me―suspecting I go through with my plan―would be.

"Please release your grip, Yuuki." A heart-stricken expression transformed her face into a crumpled mess. She looked as if she knew that the only person she truly had the world in common with was going to be put to death and that I wasn't going to be there to lead her through the ache the repercussions of Zero's passing would bring. "You have nothing to be afraid of." My words seemed to touch a place of understanding inside of her heart, and as I pulled away from her, she let me go.

Stepping forward, I unclasped the cusps of my top: a dapper dress shirt that was dear to me. My nobles switched their immediate focus from the gasping body on the floor to their pureblood, uncertainty consuming the fascination in their glowing eyes. As my fingers smoothed out over my neckline, starting first with the top button before dropping to the next, each one of my comrades stared as though they were witnessing some obscene gesture.

"Kaname―" Takuma began, hushing hurriedly as elegant sleeves slid free from my arms, as my torso drew fourth from the confines of my clothing. "...You've never..." I pushed the article into his hands. There was no use wasting an irreplaceable shirt on an already soiled cause―even if that cause was just as irreplaceable.

* * *

Zero's point of view:

* * *

Slivers of ice stabbed like a resonating beat against the tissues, fibers, the muscles and hollow veins of my body. My fingers were numb or maybe I didn't have any at all anymore. The entirety of my stomach was boiling as if someone had surgically implanted a slab of hot metal between the layers of my skin. Where there wasn't oceans of agony, there were islands of throbbing. It felt like my bones were the gongs, and in a reoccurring succession of patterns, a player was pounding away with their massive drumstick. Perhaps a mallet.

Through my vision that was shaking and drowning in and out of darkness, I could see the figures of Kuran's nobles as well as the pureblood himself. I could see Yuuki and I tried to imagine her crying in my mind, but it hurt so much that I couldn't even conjure her eyes. Everything was just black inside.

An electric-like spark of fire ignited at the base of my spine, seeming to split my back in half. It felt like I was screaming but I wasn't even sure if I could still do that. The only thing I knew for certain was the pain as it spiraled through to my brain. If migraines were land mines, then someone had just shoved one inside my head and let it explode. That's when I knew that I was definitely screaming.

Hands were on my shoulders, palms that were too warm and just added to the inferno that was my skin, forcefully pulling me up. I didn't have enough voice left in me to shriek so I choked on my breath and fell against somebody's chest. My hands lost their grip on the floor, the only thing keeping me grounded, keeping me from floating.

Something made a gruesome click inside of my body and then it was like my center of gravity was askew. Bile rose from the back of my throat as I clawed welts into the skin of the body kneeling before me so I wouldn't drift away.

The person was trying to speak to me but I couldn't comprehend. There were plugs in my ears, or maybe like my fingers, they no longer existed.

Raising my head caused my neck to shake, to unfurl an agonizingly slow shudder from my body. Through my dozy, wobbling vision I saw Kuran looking down at me with indifferent eyes. They were striking, the color of melting auburn through the dimming of my sight. He pointed toward his neck where the skin was clean and spotless, lucky to have never been bitten unlike the unlucky strike that had been me.

Vomit crawled up the contours of my throat; this time it was harder to keep down. Kuran's fingers were slipping through the seam of my lips, opening up my jaws where the pads of his fingers rubbed senseless circles against my gums. Appealed, my canine incisors elongated. Their growth sent an aching hunger throughout my already parched body. The pureblood nicked his index finger as it retreated from my mouth where he then swept the bleeding appendage across my bottom lip.

The scent of his blood cracked the glass of agony that had cocooned me in its feral grasp. Kuran had a unique scent of lavender and vanilla. Under a rush of pain, I felt my taste buds salivate as my brain imagined his taste. Sweet and rich, thick like honey.

I couldn't think straight, now fogged with hunger and drowning in pain. He'd touched my lips and his blood was there, but what did he want me to do? Unable to conjure any rational thoughts, I rebelled against my body and leaned into him, smearing his blood as I captured his bottom lip between mine because that's what I thought he wanted.

Strange how you're fine with dying one day but when it actually happens, your body realizes that's not what it wants and doesn't listen to your brain when it tells you that you're okay with this.

Was the pain really too much for me? Was that why my body had reduced itself to kissing Kuran in the hopes that _that_ would save me?

I licked the blood from his mouth, catching that hint of sugary vanilla before his hand was on my jaw and he had my face pulled down against the crook of his neck. My veins were bottomless pits, singing in an enraged starvation that was so loud, so ear piercing, that I had my teeth sinking into Kuran's flesh before the multitude of pain signals became too unbearable.

Thick blood bubbled through the gaps between skin and fangs, spilling into my mouth like a hot river. As it pooled around my tongue and slid down my throat, I thrust my teeth in deeper with an uncontrollable thirst. The way it swam through my body caused my toes to curl, evoking a soothing warmth to spread into all of the deteriorating parts of me. His blood sent a flood to the minute crevices that were packed tight with pain and consumed them until the misery washed away.

I tried to crawl closer toward the pureblood but my body was too fraught with alternating sensations. Hunger made me suck his skin, pain fought against my reborn strength, and something vivid and warm was rising fourth as if from a stowed away box hidden in the attic. The pureblood's arm encased my waist, dragging me forward until his chest rubbed against my own. His other hand found the back of my head and wound through my hair, urging my fangs to slide farther into his throat.

My arms wrapped around his back, fingers pressing, kneading, into his skin. I relished how soft it was as the feeling in my tips returned. Heavy breath panted against my ear. The hand in my hair tightened. The arm around my body tugged me further into his lap. My legs on either side of his thighs squeezed when his blood seemed to turn syrupy, or perhaps my sense of taste had just decided to return to me.

A heat I hadn't known my body could possess took over, assaulting my brain, sending it into a whirlwind of blissful nothingness. My hands turned into fists against his shoulder blades. When the pureblood spoke, his voice was sultry and husky, rumbling against the shell of my ear. "Don't stop until all of the fever has fled."

Sharp nails pricked my waist, sending thousands of tiny little shivers coiling up my spine. It felt like the imaginative split in back that had occurred earlier was melding together, while an ache continued to fuel the figurative hotplate beneath my skin. Although it was a hindrance, it almost coupled with the other heat, the intoxicating one, that I was feeling everywhere else.

When my eyes had drooped to a half-lidded state, I wasn't sure, but now they were so heavy that I let them close as my own nails grew jagged, pressing close to the pureblood's skin. My body was subconsciously responding to him through the maze of bloodlust that was building up inside of me.

The hand in my hair sidled lower, down to the nape of my neck, where his fingers curled over the side and their pads gently touched the edge of my cursed tattoo. My entire body shuddered in something far different from the pain it had previously succumbed to. Against all better judgement, my shoulder―hiked high as if to hide the mark―dropped at the joint.

Kuran's fingers slid with ease over my blemished skin. I gasped, fangs floundering as they momentarily lost their home before they sunk back into the flesh of a fresh, new spot on the pureblood's neck. His breathe grew labored next to my ear and that's all I heard as I sucked thick blood turned spicy like cloves.

A tugging sensation. The pureblood's hand was no longer on my neck but on my shoulder now. I made a noise, refusing to let go of his skin. He tore me away though, cradling me as I nearly fell backwards, limp with my head tilted back.

My eyelids were fluttering again and my fangs felt lost, worried, afraid that they were never going to eat again.

When Kuran brought my head up, my vision spun but I looked him straight in the face. I'd never seen his eyes so half-mast, vermillion, and hungry before. "Good job, vampire."

* * *

"He did what he had to do." Takuma's voice came through the large, ornate door. I was inside one of the many moon dormitory guest rooms. The particular door I was situated behind had been set up as a temporary nurse's office. Small arrays of equipment―regular tools like a stethoscope, thermometers, blood pressure wraps―and serious doctorate's degree utensils―syringes, tubes, odd mechanics that look genuinely terrifying―were set up on wheeled-in carts.

I sat there, craned back in a portable chair with foam covered in plastic like the ones at the dentist's. My shirt was rolled up to expose the circle of needle marks that I had been injected with the week before. A woman sat between my legs, inspecting the unhealed scars with magnifying glasses covering her eyes and a sharp tipped pencilesque tool in her hand.

She poked and prodded at the ring of spots, quiet and straight-faced, giving no indication of what she thought about my injury in her expression. Her attitude reminded me of Kuran and the other nobles, the other vampires in general. All of them were too regal and stoic, too much like cardboard and not enough like a person. At least the woman had a warm touch to her, like a mom or something like that. Maybe a sister.

"He didn't _have_ to do anything." Aido sounded angry, an angry piece of cardboard. He'd been pissed all week as though I'd put a damper on his pureblood extravaganza.

Yeah, well there was a damper on mine too.

"You can't even see the bite marks, Aido. Just let it go." Kain spoke now. Jesus, were they all outside the door acting like huge pansies or something?

No―they weren't. They were probably sitting in their little lounge area that each of them thought was the shit. I just had ridiculous hearing skills now thanks to Kuran's blood.

After all of the daily checkups, I'd learned a lot about blood transfusions with purebloods. Specifically how a fraction of Kuran's power was just permeating inside of my body, not unlike how all of his fools meandered out in their gay ass lounge. Eventually it would go away, and most of it had, but I was still waiting for his heightened hearing capabilities to leave me alone.

After coinciding with a _fraction_ of the pureblood's power, I've come to realize something that I never took into consideration before: Purebloods were serious creatures. I mean, I had always known that nobody ever really stood a chance against Kuran. But it was an utterly mind-altering experience to _feel_ that power. It would definitely make you rethink your actions the next time you thought about double-crossing him.

It would take a lot to be reprimanded for double-crossing, though. Kuran had complete control over himself. He knew exactly how to manipulate his strengths for the safety of everyone. For that, I―actually it was more like some awakened, uncontrollable part of me―wanted to feel respect towards the pureblood, but the original side of me wouldn't allow it, and by the term "original", I meant the me before my uncontrollable awakening.

"Of course you can't see them! But they're _there_. He had virgin skin until that stupid Level D marred his innocence." There was venom in Aido's voice, venom like the kind that had been syringed into my stomach the night Kuran made me bite him.

"_He had virgin skin until that stupid Level D was _given the okay_ to mar his_ _innocence,_" was what he should've said. I wasn't the bad guy.

"You can hear them," Yuuki stated, reaching out to hold my hand. Her palm was warm against mine, reminding me of how hot Kuran's skin had been when my body temperature had been fluking during my sickness. A shiver begged to race up my spine but uncontrollable me wasn't going to win this one.

"What?"

"You're not good at controlling your facial expressions." The little girl smiled sadly. Little vampire girl. Little pureblood girl. "I know they're out there and I know that you can hear them."

"Don't worry about what they're saying," I assured her, honestly not caring about what was said about me. I was sure it wasn't the first time, anyways. I _knew_ it wasn't the first time. "This is just like your average high school. Shit talking and whatnot. Except this talk is more about who sucked whose blood and who no longer has a virgin neck."

When the words came out, I internally winced. I guess I did on the outside too by the way Yuuki was looking at me. It wasn't about the talk, though. It was about how disgusting I was for being desperate enough to―without even meaning to―feed off of blood so that I could revive myself. A second life. And vampires got them all the time; third ones and fourth ones, too. Humans didn't get second chances like that and that's all I ever wanted to be.

I could sense him before I could smell him, and when I smelt him I wanted more. My throat felt too thick to swallow as I forced this new, uncontrollable side of me not to inhale deeper. It was another side effect of drinking his blood, except I had been told that this one was here to stay. I wasn't sure how I was going to live with it, seeing as I was completely torn.

_I_ wanted to throw up all over Kuran's shoes while my..._ other_ wanted to―fuck, I wasn't even going to _think_ about what my other wanted to do to him.

"You didn't tell me that Kuran was going to show up." My accusation was directed toward the doctor. She glanced up at me with her cardboard face and smiled before dropping her tool into its little basket of other sterilized pieces, then she stood up and went to take off her plastic gloves.

"The young prince asked for me not to inform you of when he'd be arriving. His order comes above yours, I'm afraid." Of course nobody could do me the one favor of letting me know when not to show up for my doctor's appointment for the specific reason that I was _avoiding_ the pureblood. How could I have been so selfish?

I frowned at her. "Thanks."

The least I could do was cover up my midriff. "Kaname-sama would like to see the result of your injection. Please keep your shirt raised until he says otherwise."

_Yeah, it's cool, just let me get naked while I'm at it._

My brain froze the instant the thought had formed. Yuuki squeezed my hand as if saying, _It's okay_.

It's okay _what_?

_It's okay_ that Kuran just wants to check up on me or _It's okay_ that I just fucking thought about getting naked around him?

Because both were definitely _not_ okay.

The door gently, noiselessly, swung open and gently, noiselessly, the pureblood swaggered his way in. Tension all the way from the lounge rolled in like the tide. Then it was sucked back out from beneath the slip in the door as soon as he shut it behind him. It felt like only him and I were in the room.

My breath came out in uneven spurts and I hoped that my palms weren't sweaty or something equally stupid like that. There was no need to tip Yuuki off. This was my first time seeing Kuran since last week, since that night, and I had been praying that the attraction pulling me toward him from afar wouldn't be intense up close. Except it was and the invisible strings tying me to him felt like they were being yanked sevenfold.

He walked toward me with a poised elegance like a cat's lazy saunter, eyes focused on my face. Not on my skin that was pale and there specifically to be looked at. Not on the provocative position I was sitting in, legs spread on either side of the chair.

Just my face.

His eyes were like two auburn diamonds, glittering in a way that was both exotic and devilish. Why did they have to be fixated on me so earnestly? My memory flashed to the last time I had seen those eyes, how wild they'd been. The pureblood had a way of making wild seem tamed and devilish seem suave. Almost as suave as the way his boots didn't tap as they hit the ground.

"I'm fortunate that you did not run away upon sensing my arrival." Kuran's drawl was soothing, his tone collected and regal. It sounded completely different panting and husky.

"Is that your way of calling me a coward?" I asked, obvious offense in my voice. There was no way I was going to let him see the way he affected me. So if I couldn't put on a show of disinterest, I'd play pissed at him instead.

He didn't seem to mind my choice, almost as if he knew what lay behind it. "Are you saying you still would have shown up had you known I would be here?" Thankfully, I didn't have to answer. Vampires could read through lies and that's what would have come out of my mouth.

On the contrary, my lie had been cut short before its birth because the pureblood had come to his knees before me and had his hand on my stomach. I ripped my own from Yuuki's to smack his away from me. "_Don't touch me._" But before I could even make contact with him, he had my wrist in his grasp, fingers lightly caging my limb.

"I would just like to see the scars," he explained, releasing me.

"Then _look_. Don't touch."

"I do not believe you are in the right position to be telling me what to do, Quire. Are you not?"

I grit my teeth, lamenting because of his stupid, high status advantage.

The next time he reached out, I let his fingertips skim across my stomach. They traced the ring of pin-sized dots and as they did, my skin shivered beneath his touch. I hoped he couldn't feel my reaction, but when did Kuran ever miss anything?

As a way to distract myself, a horrible way at that, I looked down at his neck. His skin was as perfect as porcelain, smooth and pallid, where I had bitten.

_"Of course you cant see them! But they're _there_."_

Sensing the direction my thoughts were going, Kuran seized the moment to glance up at me from beneath dark lashes. I swallowed hard, feeling a thrum in my throat when a spark of red twinkled through his eyes. His hand was on my jaw then, gripping it loosely as he pulled it down to accentuate the seam of my lips.

I was deftly reminded of his fingers arousing my fangs through my gums and for the beat of a second I wanted him to do it again. But they were already halfway there.

"It is time for Yuuki to take her leave." The pureblood looked at the doctor. "I would like to question Kiryuu about Sunday. I would also be pleased if we could set up a time in which you could go over today's assessment. Talk it over with Takuma if you will. He will be able to tell you when I am free." After that, I was the only thing he looked at.

"Of course, Kaname-sama." I watched her cross to the opposite side of the room where Yuuki sat, looking at me with a worried gaze. I was wearing my emotions on my face again. The doctor wrapped her arm around the little girl's shoulders, giving her a firm squeeze that seemed to brighten Yuuki's big eyes just a bit, but it was enough. "Let us leave your boys to their business."

She smiled at she spoke, and the difference was that this one wasn't cardboard at all. It was real and meant something and she knew.

She knew that the one-sided bond I'd made with Kuran had taken its final tug.


	2. Chapter 2

The tall oak door seemed to shut with a finalizing silence.

I immediately glared down at the pureblood, lilac eyes infused with a feral vigor. I would no longer stay in this room with him. Not when I could sense the blood boiling beneath his skin. Not when he had auburn eyes that knew everything because of our stupid bond he'd inflicted upon me.

Why was it that Kuran always seemed to get the better half of every single goddamn situation?

"You should be proud of the mouth you possess." His sensuous voice was smooth on his tongue and his gaze was lingering on my mouth. His thumb brushed a delicate line against the underside of my bottom lip. The pad of his digit was so light it created a sensation like tingling. There was a problem with me when that was all he had to do to make my lips swell. "You were gifted with a beautiful one despite not being born a vampire."

I sneered at his words. "Are you trying to butter me up? I'd say that's pretty low for a _pureblood_." Of all the things I hated about Kuran Kaname, that detail had always the worst. I wanted to add, "_And who ever said your mouth was beautiful?_" because he had to go and act like all vampires had captivating mouths, except he was right, and the insult couldn't even make it past the bottom of my throat.

He could allure anyone with lips like those: their supple shade of pink, the shapely curve of his lower and the subtle accentuation of his upper. It was his cupid's bow with its soft edges and his mouth's plush disposition overall that played a tempestuous role. Even before this uncontrollable me, my eyes had always strayed toward his lips.

"Would you like me to compliment you? Perhaps your infuriated facade merely wants some attention." The bastard had the decency to smile at his false observation, but it wasn't to spite me or himself. It looked more like he was trying to tease me. I growled in disgust at his attempt.

His finger switched places with his thumb, index pressing lightly against my bottom lip as he traced a quaint line over my row of bottom teeth. He stopped in the middle and he must've been pointing at a specific area because he said, "You have one crooked tooth."_ Thanks for pointing that out, you ass._ "I find it quite becoming on you."

Something burnt beneath the skin of my cheeks and Kuran's smile twisted sardonically at the corners. "You fucking asshole―" His finger slipped between my teeth, tip rubbing against my tongue. He slinked closer, chest bumping against the edge of the chair as his other arm came up to rest against my leg, palm flat against my thigh. The presence of his hand through the fabric of my jeans caused my breath to hitch and my tongue was coaxed into moving against his finger.

He ran the digit under the very tip of my fang, inching his hand toward the inside of my leg. Enraged, I slapped both of his hands away from me. The clumsy movement caused his finger to impale the spire of my incisor. From a wound as tiny as a welt, a scent so sweet and delicious dispersed throughout the room, clogging my nose until the only thing I could smell was him, this awful beast. He had such an interesting aroma to his blood, something like heady vanilla with an undertone of cloves.

I pressed myself against the back of the chair, trying to squeeze my eyes shut and prevent the gnarly wave of hunger that had began to stir inside my stomach, chest, and fangs. I felt Kuran lean forward again although closer than before. His breath was warm against my cheek.

A bitter emotion was wafting off of him, something akin to irritation. I didn't like the next words that fell from his lips.

"Your lack of clairvoyance is _astounding_, Kiryuu. Are you so ignorant that you cannot perceive the ardor that bonds you to me?" He whispered against my ear, breath sifting through the soft locks of my hair. My veins turned to ice as his question rang shrill through my head.

_The ardor that bonds me to him._

Opening my eyes, I found his and their vivid shade of auburn. I wanted to spit in his face for being so direct, for thinking he had me _pining_ for him, for not understanding that being a vampire was grotesque and unnatural to me. The pureblood knew everything―I was fully aware that he could feel the emotions coursing through my body―the disgust, the vulnerability―and yet he chose to ignore it all the same.

His irritation dimmed to a slight smoldering of annoyance before his eyes softened at the corners and he surprised me by tugging gently at my arms. "Will it help if I put myself in a vulnerable position?" I allowed him to remove me from the chair, shirt finally tumbling back into place, but only because I was confused and curious as to what his intentions were behind that strange question. We were both standing when he suggested, "Remove your shirt."

I was barely aware of the article disappearing over the top of my head, distracted by standing too close to him to realize what I was even doing. All I could focus on was him and how he was unbuttoning the elegant top wrapped around his torso. It was a chalky white as insipid as his skin. The same skin that revealed itself in small sections with every lost button. The pureblood's complexion was creamy, contrasting enticingly with the dark tresses of his hair.

_The bond_, I thought. _It's only because of the bond_. That was the only reason why I wanted to extend my hand and touch the sinuous expanse of his flat chest. I'd continue to tell myself that whether it was true or not.

Kuran had to have felt my eyes, for he rolled his shoulders back in a graceful fashion and let his shirt slip down his arms in the identical way that I wanted to run my hands over his velvet skin. He tossed the fabric onto one of the equipment carriers before spinning fluidly on his heel to face his back toward the chair. I followed his movements with calculating eyes, watching as he stepped backwards once, twice, then eased himself into the seat. The air was too thick to swallow, to even breathe, so I gave the pureblood an accusative glare.

He cocked his head to the side, brunette locks falling against his cheeks as he observed the tension in my shoulders, the rigid stance that I held myself in. "Come here, Kiryuu."

I shook my head slowly, feeling like a robot on its final stage of malfunction, but the mechanical movement of my head was just a sad example of refusal. The pureblood saw this and stretched his arms out until he'd grasped my wrists. He urged me forward then, with tepid palms that seduced my legs into walking.

When my body lowered onto his lap, my eyes widened; a flush spread across my cheeks. His thighs were warm and my bent knees framing his hips felt about ready to shake. I grit my teeth together as another flash of hunger surged through my core, wringing throughout my entire body like an ancient bell resonating inside a hollow tower. Kuran's hands coiled up my arms, fingers tickling my flesh into goosebumps, and placed one hand on the back of my head, the other at the nape of my neck. Tenderly, he pressed my face against his throat.

My nose brushed his skin. An intoxicating hint of vanilla mingled with my senses as my eyes melted from lavender to crimson. I desperately clung to the thin wisps of control I still had while my fingers dug into the pureblood's shoulders, nails nipping at his flesh. But his blood was so close, a breath away as my lips trembled against his skin, and the hand on the back of my head was stroking me into a discombobulated frenzy.

A whimper broke through the confines of my tangled mouth. My fangs stroked his neck as I tried to jerk away but his hands were relentless, holding me in place like a lock and chain. I gasped against his flesh when the arousal of my incisors spiked. My chest was heaving, pressing against Kuran's with every quick inhale.

"You're a bastard," I growled. And in response, the vampire tilted his head to the side. As he craned his neck, I watched with starving eyes as the cords underneath his skin stretched and tightened. I could practically see the vermillion blood rushing through his arteries. It shouldn't have been so fascinating, and yet I was enchanted. My throat was so dry, my body so empty, my veins so cold. I was compelled and Kuran had won and all I wanted in the entire world was to stave off the hunger in my bones so I opened my mouth to his pureblood neck, and sunk my fangs into his flesh where the instant his blood touched my tongue, my heartbeat turned into that of a drum.

His blood collected as I sucked from the twin wounds. It poured down my throat like an explosion through a tunnel. Kuran's breath drummed hard and steady against my ear. The sensation, an exhilarating fire, caused my arms to wrap around his body. One around his shoulders, the other in his hair. I gripped hard, clasping his locks in a tight fist.

He pressed my face closer, I bit down harder, and his head tilted further. His other hand slipped down my back, feeling the bones of my spine under his heated palm. As he drew me closer his blood turned thick in my mouth. It was sweeter than I remembered, with a hidden spicy essence. A thrilling sort of heat consumed my brain, flogging me with hunger of a different kind linked with what was already there.

My lower jaw closed in on his skin, slight bottom incisors digging into his shoulder. Blood ran in rivulets out of the corner of my mouth. It spilt down the pureblood's chest and smeared against my own when I drew a sharp breath. Kuran fisted the back of my head and ripped me away from him. I growled, bearing my bloodied teeth at him as I watched red leak out his fusing wound. It was gone in seconds and I felt the tremendous need to bring it back. My fangs ached to do so.

The brunette leaned up with narrowed, indifferent eyes and lathered my jaw with a trail of saliva as he licked the blood from my face. I had no sense of a control, was gone in a vortex of enthrallment, and when my bottom lip was seized between Kuran's, I fell against his chest with my mouth hooked to his. He surreptitiously slid his tongue between my parted lips and the fact that he could taste himself on me encouraged a muffled noise from the back of my throat. Our mouths were moist and his tongue was hot as it rolled against mine, tips fondling before pressing flat and wet.

Hunger for the pureblood drove me into a mindlessness where only my body was involved. I felt separated from the world and only seemed to know that Kuran's body was warm against mine. A choked gasp was persuaded out of me when a pair of strong hips bustled against my own. My hand delved deeper into his thick curls as my groin pressed down of its own accord. There was pressure against the small of my back and my crotch roughly touched his.

My straddling legs tightened against his sides and I moaned a guttural noise into his mouth. He took my lip between his teeth and bit down just as he rocked forward. My head spun, two types of hunger presenting themselves to me from behind glorious curtains and both sounded so appetizing. I pulled away and hung my head, tipping my hips into the pureblood's as I moved to bite his pale skin. But he knocked my face away with the hand on the back of my head.

Growling, I licked at his chest. If he wouldn't let me bite him, then I'd clean up the mess I had made. But again he lifted my head so that I met him face to face. He was wearing a smirk, one that made me yearn to ravish his lips. "Such a greedy vampire," he cooed, eyes alight with mirth and twisting with scarlet.

I could only snarl, no longer in the right frame of mind to speak. His hips jerked against mine, almost as if it were a type of punishment for my angered noise, causing me to gasp. He did it again, pressed my body in tight against his, and the look on his face was just too much. He was impeccable with his amused grin but aroused eyes. I had to look away, panting with a pink tint to my cheeks.

"You would make such a charming vampire if you would just let that disgruntling human mind of yours disappear." Kuran's voice was a whisper against my ear, sending hot shivers down my spine. I felt my body respond to the sensation in the form of my crotch grinding against his. "It forbids you so much." He twisted his tongue up the shell of my ear and I leant into his touch, wanting more. "Your mouth is irresistible; you should have been born a vampire."

Contradicting his words, he didn't touch my mouth at all. Instead, he ran his lips in wet open-mouthed suctions down the column of my throat. I craned my head back, hissing when his tongue flickered over the degrading tattoo imprinted on my skin. His teeth nicked my collar bone and in the back of my mind where Zero still was, I wondered if I tasted sweet like him or if I was just full of dust. His fingers gripped my sides, thumbs pressed taut against my hipbones. He drew light circles around them, making my skin ripple. "Zero," he murmured against my skin.

My eyes peered at him through a bleary, half-lidded gaze. His tone was steaming, breath moist on my flesh. Heat pooled like liquid fire in the pit of my stomach and my jeans grew tight as I heard my name echo throughout my muddled head.

One of his hands reached for my knee before slipping up the length of my leg, squeezing as he reached my inner thigh. Sparks ignited, unfurling inside the cavity of my stomach. His other hand guided my hips down against his, effectively pushing his hand between my thighs. My breath hitched as his fingers curled around my clothed crotch. He pressed a pliant kiss to the corner of my mouth before he lifted his hand to the button of my jeans.

_Oh, fuck._

He removed the button from its slot before handling the zipper just below it.

_Oh―Oh, God._

As he pulled it down, my brain swelled with too many things all at once. The blood I had consumed was digested and my bloodlust no longer remained. But my pelvis was burning and having Kuran's hand so close to it was making me hot all over. It was gross, reacting to a vampire in such a way.

I flung his hand away from me before it could go any further. Not that there was anywhere else it could. The pureblood narrowed his smoldering eyes. A sadistic grin contorted the lower half of his face. My stomach wasn't sure whether to drop or expand at the amused set of his features.

"Perhaps I should have let you feed longer." There was that voice again. It was deep and growling, arousing my ears.

"You gross bastard―"

"I beg your pardon, but who is the one possessing an erection?"

A vicious growl tore through my chest, and since I didn't have Bloody Rose with me, I lifted my arm into a tight curve and fisted my hand. My limb was directed toward Kuran's jaw, flitting through the space between us.

But before I could reach him, his hand plunged into my pants. My attack fell limp as I hunched toward his chest, forehead against his shoulder, back tense, a sound of shock dangling from my open mouth. His palm was hot against my flesh and just the simple touch of his hand had my length growing from its half-hard state into full stiffness. My eyelids fluttered, and I'm not sure when they got there, but my hands were clawing at his back as he rubbed his hand up my shaft.

"_You are_," he breathed. I shuddered against his body as he stroked me with nimble fingers. The pattern was prancing through my mind and every time he got close to my head I shivered. Heat was spiraling out of my stomach and I felt like some sort of machine as the seething, pleasurable burn was deposited into my loins. My breath came in quick bursts, nails raking the skin of the pureblood's back every time I exhaled.

"Shut up―" I gasped, momentarily losing my bearings when I forgot to control my breath. The mistake allowed for my body to take over and I jerked my hips against Kuran's hand. A moan drizzled from between my lips and I couldn't stop myself from thrusting forward again. The pureblood chuckled against my ear, low and rumbling. My entire body shuddered. An arm wrapped around my waist, urging me into his hand without my authorization. It was like I was his puppet, like my body was moving without really doing so, and I was complying without a struggle.

He started a rhythm as he pulled me against him then let me go. I muffled quiet pants and unwelcome groans against his shoulder, so disoriented in trying to refrain from doing too many things, like not making noises that I knew Kuran would humor and not sinking my teeth back into his colorless neck, that I failed to noticed my hips working without instruction.

The pureblood's thumb passed deftly over the slit on the tip of my arousal as he squeezed his fingers. My fangs dug two holes into Kuran's throat to keep my vocal cords from creating a pathetic moan, but it only caused his fingers to close around my aching erection all over again. The blood helped erase who Zero was, though―at least who the human-hunter Zero was―and fighting the pureblood became a lot less hard. In fact, this was right where uncontrollable me wanted things.

I realized then how sticky with sweat my jeans were getting. It was hard to move against the hand that had complete jurisdiction over me. For the slightest of seconds I thought about what it would be like if I were naked. If Kuran were naked. My stomach spasmed and my jaws clamped tight around his neck as I took a deep gulp of his blood. It had to have been continuously getting thicker for when I swallowed it slid down my throat like melted chocolate and tasted just as sweet. My hands skimmed up to his dark chestnut hair.

"Why does your blood keep doing that?" I wasn't aware that I had asked the question, only that my lips were leaving a trail of red up his neck. My voice didn't sound like my own. It was too throaty, too seductive. I hadn't even been aware that I _could_ be seductive.

Kuran caught my mouth just as I had been about to clamp it around the underside of his jaw. He passed his tongue over my lips, tasting himself before rooting deeper inside my mouth. He was picking up on the dense saccharine flavor while his thumb smeared precum across the tip of my erection. My body craved more of his touch and my brain escalated into a delirious mess when his aroused fangs rubbed against my tongue.

"My blood corresponds with my emotions," he explained, suddenly lifting me to my knees before grabbing the hem of jeans and pulling them down. I gasped, eyes wide with lust when the air hit my overheated length. "You've been drinking my feelings I suppose." He snuck my jeans over my knees and down my calves before informing me as to what that basic emotion was: "Arousal." I swallowed hard, mind spinning as the pureblood worked my clothing off entirely. "If you were an intelligent vampire you would know that you could rummage deeper and find out exactly what I am thinking emotionally." He paused, staring up at me with crimson eyes and I wondered if he was going to bite me as an example. "Perhaps it is better if you remain unaware."

I didn't question him as I was too drawn to the fact that if I inched myself back down I'd be sitting naked in Kuran Kaname's lap. The knowledge of that wasn't supposed to ignite my groin, but it did; and when I straddled him, I couldn't take my eyes off of us because through his stupid, fancy trousers I could see that he was hard. I wanted to rip my heart out for beating so fast and I wanted to tear my mouth off for salivating.

"Unfortunately," Kuran growled, voice demanding and quiet against the drum of my ear, "purebloods do not need to taste blood to know what another is pondering." His wet tongue flicked the lobe of my pierced ear. A tremor coursed through my body. The pureblood meant that it was unfortunate he couldn't bite me. How was any of this happening?

My eyes refused to dim their astonishment. I couldn't stop myself from wanting to roll my hips into his now that I knew we were in the same position and I hated it. "Do not be ashamed, Zero." When had he started calling me by my first name?

He grabbed either one of my hips in his spindly hands and I fought for the sensible side of me to appear again. "What the hell are you doing?" I snarled, trying to pry his fingers from my skin. His hold didn't budge, fucking pureblood.

"Here," he offered. Then his rocked my erection against his crotch with my hands still covering his. I forced my eyes away, unable to look at the action that was just adding coal to the fire. Kuran chuckled and while I was being too much of a pansy to look, he released his arousal with what was probably fluidity and grace because that's what purebloods were.

I did definitely hear it, though, the way his button popped and his zipper buzzed. The brunette's powers were awakening inside of me. I could feel every tendril of thread that made up his slacks. I was able to hear the smooth tenor of his breath as well as the heavy lurch of my own. Every time I inhaled I could taste his blood on my taste buds and his fingers were soft against my hips. I let him grind our arousals together and when his hard, hot flesh rubbed against my own, I drowned inside of my body under a wave of heat and pleasure.

"Why are you doing this to me? S-Stop it."

"Consider it a form of compensation for saving your life," he explained.

"I-I hate you," I tried to say but it came out too weak to mean anything.

"If it is anger that fuels your body, Zero, then let me feel how furious you are."

"_No―_" My gasp once again held little significance as Kuran's hips rose. If he wanted anger, he wasn't going to receive it. The damn pureblood would receive nothing he wanted.

I was confused when two of his lissom fingers touched my mouth. "Suck on them otherwise you will be going against your wishes to keep me blind as to how much ire you feel towards me."

"It's you _and_ your race," I spat before closing my lips around his appendages. Kuran snickered, grinning smugly as my tongue soaked the length of his digits. Although I had replied with strength, I began to feel my stomach knot as the realization of where those fingers were going to go washed over me.

"Look at me." His voice was commanding behind the huskiness. My eyes raised all on their own, betraying what I would've normally done, although nothing I had done since the beginning of this bond had been normal. He locked his powerful gaze on me, red traced auburn eyes reflecting me like a mirror―and I saw myself, the pungent fear like a reoccurring dapple all over my face. How right Yuuki was that I wore what I felt in my features.

Unexpectedly my vision grew hazy as unabashed lust came fourth from depths that I didn't know existed. My eyelids fluttered leisurely and my teeth nicked Kuran's fingers. I sucked harder, my erection swelling against his, and all the while I couldn't take my eyes away from the pureblood's. He was doing one of his vampire tricks on me but I couldn't bring myself to care. Heat overwhelmed my insides, threatening to leak.

Kuran plucked his fingers from my mouth. I watched them go in disappointment, and to replace them I sucked on his bottom lip. When one of his fingers pressed firmly against the tight ring of muscle that made up my entrance, I closed my eyes and inhaled a shaky breath because that was what his voice told me to do inside my head. His finger slid into me and behind all of the burning pleasure, I felt slightly strange. I tried to move away but met his chest and arousal instead. My hips careened downwards, causing his digit to dig deeper.

He moved his hand away from my body before pressing his finger back inside. An odd jolt shot up my spine. He repeated the notion, nuzzling his nose against mine. I felt my stomach clamp up in something that wasn't negativity at the sweet gesture. He tucked his finger in deep, down to the knuckle.

I pulled away from him just as he added a second finger and hissed at the stretch he'd instigated upon me. _Relax, Zero._ His voice was like a ripple through water. His tone was soothing, full of placidity, and I didn't remember it ever giving me chills before tonight.

My head dropped against his shoulder, forehead hot against his skin. My hands fumbled in his hair, nails scraping his scalp as his fingers curled against what must have been tight, warm nerves. My body arched at the movement of his hand, back dipping to press against his flat chest, breath leaving my lungs like a gust of wind. He inched his appendages out before pushing them back in, pressing them against my inner walls. I inclined my head, rubbing my cheek against his shoulder as I let go of a breathy moan.

I felt the pureblood's chest rumble with a satirical snicker and his voice wasn't just in my head this time. "_Do you like it when I do that_?" Pleasure rolled like a rockslide from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. I voiced my arousal again, unsure whether it was due to the seductive tone of the pureblood's voice or the way his fingers were curving in just the right way, or maybe it was both.

Kuran removed his digits. My body suddenly felt empty. Too empty and I wanted more. A savage whimper oozed out of my mouth as I coiled myself around Kuran in an attempt to substitute his lost digits.

"As you can see," he started, so randomly that I wasn't sure what he was talking about, "I wasn't prepared for such a result as this, Zero. So forgive me for being brash." Hands lifted me up at the hips. "I promise that next time will not be as brutal." And he pushed me down onto his stiff erection that stretched me beyond that of two simple fingers. My jaw fell open in a silent gasp, lilac eyes burning and wide. "Just do not forget that you are a vampire." Kuran's voice was as thick as his arousal.

_Just do not forget that you are a vampire._

_Just do not forget that you are a vampire._

_Just do not forget that you are a vampire._

Because vampires liked pain, but this was no pain that I wanted. Not there, where I was so vulnerable. "You sleazy bastard!" My voice cracked as I hurled the insult at him, back arching painfully against the searing fire in my fucking _ass_. "I'm never going to be one of you sick fucked up fucks!" I tried to lift myself from his lap but his hands were in a gentle, vice grip and every time I moved, my butt begged for fucking mercy. Mercy that I couldn't give it.

Kuran rested his head against the chair, fingers tightening against my sides as a look of peeved discomfort flashed briefly across his features. I bared my teeth at him and I knew he was aware of my vicious act even though his eyes were closed.

"You like that, bitch?" I asked in mockery, rephrasing his earlier question in a Zeroesque way now that I wasn't under his demented vampire mind control. The muscles of my anus clamped down around his erection. "Let me go, you fucker!" I tried to rise onto my knees but only perfected a healthy bump against his lap.

My fingers tore at his shoulders. The blood and skin clotting beneath my nails expelled his stimulating scent, but despite my mouth's watering I refused to fall ill to his stupid pureblooded temptation. "Zero―" His tone was one of warning.

"Shut the fuck up already! Damn it, do you ever fucking listen? This _hurts_!" I struggled further as little zings and pings split my ass in two.

Kuran's arms wound around my back like elastic cords, tying me to him. My eyes flashed red in anger as I comprehended that this was what the pureblood wanted. He'd asked me to show him how angry I could get and I had said "No," yet there I was, doing the exact opposite.

Without warning, the pureblood tilted his hips up.

I crumpled against his chest. His length had slid that short fraction further inside of me, and the way it had felt as it rubbed against me was incomprehensible because that feeling had come from _inside. _I was having _sex_ with a pureblood. My virginity, the only pure thing I had left, was gone.

The brunette sensed my conflict and brushed away the silver strands of hair sticking to my forehead. I made to slap his hand away but he caught my palm with his and placed my arm around his shoulders before letting go. There was a deep need inside of me that wanted to keen at the unbearably sincere gesture but I couldn't, because the bastard's voice was at my ear all over again.

"Move your hips." Each word seemed to hang on his tongue in a sultry drawl. Before I could control myself, my body took over and Kuran allowed me to rise on unsteady knees. The sleek feel of his erection slipping out of me brought a hitch to my breath. The pureblood helped guide me back down and his smooth re-entrance was enough to knock my head back.

My eyes stared at the ceiling as I lifted myself up and dropped myself down. Kuran's lips were wet and warm against the dip in my neck and the arm around his shoulders tightened. I groaned when the tip of my arousal brushed against the pureblood's flat abdomen. He snapped his hips up, burying himself inside of me. My eyelids fluttered shut as I rocked into his lap, back arching pliantly.

I dropped my head into the crook of his neck, smelling his blood beneath my fingernails. I ran my tongue along his throat, shuddering as he thrust into me with his hard length, my body swallowing him deeper. Heat ran a convulsive track through my groin and I twitched against his stomach in response. A warm palm met my skin, right where the pinpoint scars were.

The next plunge inside of me was angled differently and an alarmed, pleasured moan fell carelessly from my mouth. I thrust against the pureblood, jerking my hips toward his body; his erection nudged that cluster of nerves again. My eyes gazed unfocused at his pale collarbones as Kuran's hot breath nearly singed my ear away.

"_O-Oh_ God." My brain spun in circles, spewing random nonsense while I moaned and bit my lip, allowing Kuran to slip deeper. My inner-walls spasmed around him, causing the pureblood's whispering breath to turn into a quiet voice.

"_Zero._" He growled an animalistic noise before quickening his pace.

I gasped and moaned feebly at the fast rhythm he was conducting. My fingers dug fervently into his skin while his lips fastened around my neck. His fangs scathed my skin, making me pant against his throat. He hiked me higher on top of his lap and I couldn't take his idle hand anymore. With an obvious coax, I covered it with my own and dropped it low until I could make his fingers curl around my aching erection the way they had inside of me.

Imagining this scene, his agile thrusting, and his hand―all stunted my labored breath. I moaned profusely, forcing his hand to drag down my shaft. It leaked while my knees began to shake. Kuran whispered against my ear but I couldn't tell what he was saying. I was too far gone in a state of undeniably beautiful bliss.

The pureblood began to pump me without directive so I moved my hand over his arm and gripped his bicep. His skin was so warm and his blood still hung in the air. My fangs begged desperately to taste him on the cusp of orgasm. If he had tasted delicious before then I wanted to know what his flavor was now. I bared my teeth and speared his flesh.

Red smeared against my tongue as my eyes flared in a duplicate color. His blood was pure pheromones. I jerked into his hot palm then his hardened length and the pureblood timed his thrusts with the stroke of his hand. The heat in my gut was overflowing with fire and I needed release but I couldn't stop moving. Everything was too much. Kuran's moist breath, his boiling blood, his tight fingers, my arm wrapped tenderly around his shoulders, the quick sporadic movements of our hips, my aroused prostate, his kiss against my jaw.

I threw myself from his neck as my body convulsed in miraculous shudders that tore through my entire being. White blotted out my vision as an intense swell of pleasure stemmed from some newly discovered place inside of me. A filthy moan proved how tantalizing my orgasm was and I came hard against Kuran's stomach.

The suction of my interior on the pureblood's erection catapulted him into blind ecstasy. He thrust into me again, the motion irking a few depleted groans out of me before semen was spilt against my insides.

We stayed like that for a while. I couldn't tell for how long, dazed and sleepy as I was. Maybe later I would be pissed, but right then I was pretty content.

* * *

To every anonymous reviewer: thank you (: I wouldn't have been inspired to upload this second installment had you kept such lovely compliments to yourself.

Also, I fear there may be some loose ends―what the hell happened to Zero in the first place? My terribly vague description of what a bloodbond is. Other things I'm sure seem displaced―so perhaps this story is in need of a sequel. Until then, I hope this alone tides you over!

PS: This was the first sex scene I've ever written.


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